So, today was a very eventful day. Naomi and I both participated in "Die Burger," a cycle race that starts and ends in Stellenbosch, a beautiful town in the heart of the Afrikaner heartland about 45 minutes from Cape Town. This was our first race, and a prep for our March 8 "Argus." Naomi, as part of her "training wheels" group, did the 46 km ride, and I did the 98 km ride. We were happy to just finish, but here are our official times:
Naomi (46 km) // Seth (98 km)
Time 2:05:07 // 3:37:36
Overall 512th out of 1052 // 2095th out of 3599
Gender 141st out of 392 // 1831st out of 2929
Age Group 17th out of 47 // 160th out of 272
Who said 2095th is not something to be proud of! It was a gorgeous day, but unfortunately, we forgot the camera. So, you'll just have to take our word for it!
Different Views on a Day at the Beach: Hout Bay and Llandudno
BUT, I want to reflect on last Sunday. That was the day that Maya's 6th grade class was having a picnic on the beach in Llandudno. Llandudno is just over the hill from us. Driving west, we crest the mountain at "Constantianek" and then come down the hill to Hout Bay --a beautiful beach town with great restaurants and a slight counter-culture feel. Then, from Hout Bay, you drive north over a hill, and come to this gorgeous, little beach town called "Llandudno." Here's a picture:
Well, we had a fantastic morning on the beach: playing rugby with Maya's teacher and her classmates (including her American visiting student teaching, Mr. Jacob from Michigan), taking a very cold dip in the Atlantic, and soaking in some beautiful sunshine. It was a great day.But, things weren't so nice for other folks just over the hill in Hout Bay. It turns out that on Friday, two days before our visit, a fire broke-out in the Hout Bay township (yes, every gorgeous town here has an not-so-gorgeous township, with shacks crowded one an another, dirt roads, and minimal services --electricity, but no piped water, except for at a few communal spigots). This fire completely destroyed 250 shacks. That means 1,000 people were homeless, and lost everything that they had, except the clothes on their back. On Saturday, the day after the fire, the government was handing out "shack starter kits," which includes lumber and tin sheets for the roof. As we drove through town on our way home from the beach on Sunday, we saw a number of people carrying tin and wood up the hill, to begin the rebuilding process. (Addendum: I just heard on the radio that 2000 additional people are homeless, from 3 different fires that swept through 3 townships in and around Cape Town. Clearly, this is a significant problem.)
Well, on Monday morning, things got crazy. It turns out, a number of families had started to build their new shacks, not on their old spots, but on empty land that been designated for a new affordable housing development, still in the works (that's a whole nother story! Often, these projects take forever, and expectations rise leading to anger and frustration). So, when people had the chance to rebuild, they stretched their property lines a bit, and were building on the land that was to become the new development. Well, first thing Monday morning, the police came by and made them take everything down. Before you knew it, there were gun shots, and a number of people were hurt. Police claimed they were fired upon with guns and flares. The residents claimed the police started the shooting. As a protest, the residents started burning tires on the road, to keep the police out of the neighborhood. Here is a picture from the Cape Times, the next morning:
As I shared the picture, and the story, with colleagues at UWC and UCT, their comments were very telling. For one, the picture took them back to the 1980s, when these kinds of tire-burning protests were almost a daily occurrence. Community protests to keep the police OUT of a neighborhood, and try to reclaim some space. As I spoke about how I felt strange having spent a luciously relaxing time at the beach, only minutes away from this tension and struggle, she said: "I can remember a time, not too long ago, when people weren't allowed on the beach! It is amazing we've come this far!"
It just shows you how our perspective, without the history, is so different. The fact that anyone can go onto the beach in Llandudno IS a major accomplishment. Yes. But in reality, who is really using the beach? You don't see many black families on the beach. Especially when they are busy building, rebuilding, staking a claim to space, and still protesting for a decent quality of life. Maybe that's why this picture is so powerful. It was taken by Maya's teacher. Some of her classmates on the beach. The new South Africa, in the process of being born. Without the history, we might not appreciate the significance of this image.
Blog ya later.Seth./.
